TV drama of a gypsy trucker still magic for fans

The 1974-75 TV series, “Movin’ On,” starring Claude Akins and Frank Converse, lasted through 46 episodes before it was cut, but, now 35 years later, some fans are still devoted to the adventures of the kind-spirited Sonny Pruitt, portrayed by hunk-handsome 6-foot, 2-inch-tall Akins. Before the series ended, Overdrive published a 17-page story on the filming of the truck-heavy episodes, which you can read about at OverdriveRetro.

The series’ theme song, written and sung by Merle Haggard, bore the series’ title and was a No. 1 single on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Singles chart in July 1975.

Even more interesting, to me, is that a slogan based on the TV show drifted into pop culture’s collective usage: “Do it to it like Pruitt used to do it to it.” Bruce W. Smith, Executive Editor of Overdrive’s sister magazine Custom Rigs, says he remembers hearing his father, who worked in mills, say it.

Along with fans who visit the site, you can catch a few scenes from “Movin’ On” and its theme song on YouTube.